Question

Assignment 4

Topic: HIV & Communicable Diseases

1. Think about your community and look for community-based interventions that deal with HIV or other communicable diseases (STIs, the flu, zika, etc.). These can range from informational posters about the flu vaccine to important guidelines for safe sex. (hint: you can find these at health clinics, pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens).

2. What did you find? Where did you find it? Who were these interventions targeting?

3. Did you think the interventions are effective? What makes them effective or ineffective?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) When it comes to neighbourhood intervention, overhaul or community work, it would be essential to define the borders of the neighbourhood for managerial purposes. After this is done, one would need to establish a neighbourhood committee that is responsible for management of such activities and neighbourhood programmes.

Considering that most of these ailments are seasonal, it would be prudent to plan such events in advance. When it comes to issues like the flu, it is common that individuals would go to their local Walgreens or CVS in order to get their shots. If most people are unable to go, it is simply because they do not have the time. However, if a carpool would be arranged on a late evening when people would be back from work or school, it would be so that people have a flu shot in their schedule.

Such an event could be announced through pamphlets or a common notice board that might be on the entry and exit point of the block. People could gather around the pick-up spots and volunteers could drive them to the local pharmacy to get their flu shots.

Another issue would be STIs, AIDS and other deadly diseases. A programme could be conducted by the youth of the neighbourhood, where they could meet up and have a doctor offer them a comprehensive education about such issues. This would help the youth stay informed and even encourage them to organise more events and even invite friends if necessary. Again, a neighbourhood notice board or a texting service could be established to get the word out about events, programmes and meetings.

The target audience for such interventions are mostly the young adults. Such committees work as a mock-up for serious professional committees and help hone one’s organisational skills. Furthermore, one might find that the biggest problem might not be the health issues but the lack of knowledge on how to curb these problems. This problem can be found in the adolescent children who do not receive a comprehensive education about the biological workings of the human body at the age when it is needed.

Interventions are generally effective because they seek to inform an individual about something that they are either unaware of or that they tend to deny. Either way, an intervention works like a jolt of information that is much needed to find solutions to a problem. Furthermore, group interventions help foster a sense of community that would mostly lead to the entire group going on a learning curve together. This might lead to a fruitful progress in finding solutions and combating issues.